El Capitan Precious Metals, Inc. confirms that it received its first payment on the sale of precious metals extracted from El Capitan ore in June of this year from a domestic precious metals refinery. The Company has since dispatched a second shipment of precious metal alloy bars to the refinery for processing and payment.
According to John F Stapleton, Chairman and CEO, the first shipment—weighing slightly over four pounds—was a key step in establishing protocols and procedures that will be implemented in future, larger translations. The second shipment of precious metal alloy bars had a total weight of approximately 13.5 pounds, or about three times the weight of the first shipment.
From the first alloy bar shipment, the refinery recovered gold, silver, and platinum, which represented approximately six percent of the total weight of the bar. For these precious metals, El Capitan was paid approximately $3,600, or approximately $900 for each pound of the concentrated metal alloy. Stapleton stresses that it is important to note that the bar also contained iridium and osmium and that, on the first shipment, the Company was not paid for the iridium and the osmium. That is expected to change, he stated, related to future shipments on which the refiner would pay for all precious metals in the alloy bars.
The Company estimates that, if it has been paid for the iridium and osmium metals in the first shipment, the percent of total weight subject to payment would have been 10 percent (versus six) with an added payment of $1,400, bringing the total payment to approximately $5,000.
“The bottom line,” said Stapleton,” is that the financial elements of the initial transaction calculate to and demonstrate that, had El Capitan been paid for all the precious metals in the bar, it would have received approximately $1,250 for each pound of precious metals concentrates that it produced and sold.”
Stapleton added that, while the Company, under contact terms, has not yet received payment on the second shipment of alloy bars, it has been informed that it will receive payment for all precious metals—gold, silver, platinum, iridium, and osmium—in the metal alloy bars in the second transaction and in subsequent shipments.
The Company expects its third shipment to be approximately 500 pounds of precious metals concentrates and that material is being prepared for shipment.
Stapleton stressed that in developing new methods of extracting precious metals, the process requires that the Company start with a small run which would increase incrementally with each successive run and shipment, assuring that the process and results remain consistent with increasingly large amounts of material or, alternatively, making the necessary adjustments. “That is exactly the purpose of a Pilot Operation,” said Stapleton, “and the incremental ramp up has proven to be successful.”
As announced at the July Shareholders’ Informational Meeting, once the larger shipments consistently prove to produce the same level of results, El Capitan expects to arrange for its ore to be concentrated and its precious metals to be recovered in much larger quantities in a Production Operation. Planning and discussions are already taking place to support this transition.
Company management is very confident of the attractiveness of these recovery methods, their cost-effectiveness, and their scalability.
Add Comment